Protect the environment: In your community

Window To My Environment helps you make a map of your community with links to data and information about air quality, water quality, drinking water safety, and toxic releases in your area. It combines interactive maps with links to federal, state and local environmental resources to answer questions about what is being done to protect the environment in your community.

Now you can prevent pollution in lots of environmentally and economically beneficial ways. Extracting and using raw materials creates pollution and uses energy. By changing the way you use products and resources you can prevent pollution and save money. Preventing pollution provides cleaner air and water, less waste in landfills, conservation of natural resources, reduced soil erosion, lower electricity and water bills, and increased property values.

EPA's Air Quality Index (AQI) provides daily air quality reports. The AQI tells you how clean or polluted your outdoor air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air.

Communities work to develop and implement sustainable water management programs to meet the present and future water needs of residents and businesses. By promoting water-efficient practices and services through incentive programs and educating residents and businesses about water efficiency, you can help protect water resources for future generations.

Find out whether your favorite beach water quality is being monitored, who is responsible for the monitoring, the pollutants that are being monitored, and whether advisories or closures have been issued.

The Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program offers grants to fund collaborative partnerships of local residents, governments and businesses that reduce toxic pollutants in their local environments and minimize people's exposure to those pollutants.